Women’s groups and attorneys yesterday protested a Cabinet--approved amendment to the Criminal Code that would remove one of the criteria for an act to be considered a sexual assault and would raise the penalty for sex offenders, a move the groups said would only result in more offenders escaping punishment.
Amid public dissatisfaction with light verdicts for sex crimes, the Ministry of Justice has proposed an amendment to the Criminal Code. However, the proposed amendment has raised more questions than it has answered.
The amendment still pending legislative review, recommends raising the minimum penalty for sex crimes from three years in prison to five years. Also, it removes the objections of the victim as a criterion when considering whether a sexual assault occurred. Under current legislation, an encounter is considered a sexual assault if it can be proven the act was against the victim’s will or the victim objected.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
In a written statement, the ministry said it had proposed deleting the criterion because when an offender sexually assaulted a victim, “the nature of the act was in violation of the victim’s will, hence, there is no need to include ‘the will of the victim’ as a criterion [for sexual assault] in law.”
If proof that the victim objected is written in the law as a criterion for judging whether a sexual act constituted sexual assault, “the action may not be considered a ‘sexual assault’ if it cannot be objectively proven that it was done in violation of the victim’s will,” the ministry said.
However, “the criterion should not be deleted so recklessly,” Lee Chao-huan (李兆環), an attorney and a researcher on children and young adult issues at the Taipei Bar Association, told a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
“What’s more important is raising gender awareness among judges and conducting thorough research on the issue,” she said.
On average, more than 70 percent of sexual assaults are perpetrated by people familiar with the victims, such as friends, colleagues, family members or relatives, and in many cases when a victim is raped by someone she or he knows, “the victim is either too shocked to react, or just succumbs without resisting,” Lee said.
“In such cases, you won’t find any ‘subjective’ evidence — such as wounds or screaming heard by witnesses — that the victim was raped,” she said.
However, Modern Women’s Association executive director Yao Shu-wen (姚淑文) said the amendment, if adopted by the legislature, could make matters worse.
Since it would become difficult to determine whether rape occurred because the victim would no longer be able to say whether she or he was unwilling during intercourse, prosecutors and judges could become more conservative in handing down guilty verdicts -because the new penalty would be more severe, Yao said.
As a result, “we will see more sex offenders escaping sanction,” Yao said.
Yu Mei-nu (尤美女), an attorney and a long-time women’s rights advocate, said government officials and lawmakers should not have the “conventional” image of a sex crime in mind when reviewing a case.
Yu said that the “conventional” image of a sex crime was a -scenario in which a woman is taken by a stranger by force in a car and driven to the middle of nowhere, while screaming and shouting “no” all the way.
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
Taipei is participating in Osaka’s Festival of Lights this year, with a 3m-tall bubble tea light installation symbolizing Taiwan’s bubble tea culture. The installation is designed as a bubble tea cup and features illustrations of Taipei’s iconic landmarks, such as Taipei 101, the Red House and North Gate, as well as soup dumplings and the matchmaking deity the Old Man Under the Moon (月下老人), affectionately known as Yue Lao (月老). Taipei and Osaka have collaborated closely on tourism and culture since Taipei first participated in the festival in 2018, the Taipei City Department of Information and Tourism said. In February, Osaka represented
POOR IMPLEMENTATION: Teachers welcomed the suspension, saying that the scheme disrupted school schedules, quality of learning and the milk market A policy to offer free milk to all school-age children nationwide is to be suspended next year due to multiple problems arising from implementation of the policy, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday. The policy was designed to increase the calcium intake of school-age children in Taiwan by drinking milk, as more than 80 percent drink less than 240ml per day. The recommended amount is 480ml. It was also implemented to help Taiwanese dairy farmers counter competition from fresh milk produced in New Zealand, which is to be imported to Taiwan tariff-free next year when the Agreement Between New Zealand and
Taiwanese professional baseball should update sports stadiums and boost engagement to enhance fans’ experience, Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) commissioner Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview on Friday. The league has urged Farglory Group and the Taipei City Government to improve the Taipei Dome’s outdated equipment, including relatively rudimentary television and sound systems, and poor technology, he said. The Tokyo Dome has markedly better television and sound systems, despite being 30 years old, because its managers continually upgraded its equipment, Tsai said. In contrast, the Taipei Dome lacked even a room for referees
RSS